THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY RECORD

No.29 - p216

© FEBRUARY 1970

MANNING WARDLE 1323

    According to the Manning Wardle Engine Book, Manning Wardle 1323, a class "F" 0‑4‑0 saddle tank with 10in by 16in outside cylinders and 2ft 9in wheels, was ordered on 26th August 1896 and despatched on 22nd September 1896 to Woodhouse Mill for contractor Thomas MitcheII, his No.4. The only other subsequent owner recorded by the builder is "Ford Paper Works Ltd., nr. Sunderland". On 14th April 1963 the Engineer at this factory (then owned by Ford Paper Mills Ltd, and now by Wiggins Teape Ltd) was a Mr Wilson who had been there since 1913. The Manning Wardle had arrived by 1913, and he understood it had come from a contractor on some docks scheme in the area. However, someone else was certain it had been purchased from the contractor building the Queen Alexandra Bridge over the River Wear, a mile or so west of Sunderland.

    The Act for the construction of this bridge was obtained in 1900 jointly by Sunderland Corporation (road traffic on the lower deck) and the North Eastern Railway. A "white elephant" railway built at the same time ran on the upper deck of the bridge from Diamond Hall Junction (between Millfield and Pallion) to Castletown Junction (between Hylton Lane and Southwick), a distance of about 1 mile 55 chains. A paper read to the Institution of Civil Engineers in April 1910 stated that the contract for the whole of the work was undertaken by Sir William Arrol & Co Ltd, of Glasgow. The bridge took over four years to build and was opened on 10th June 1909.

    Information is sought as to whether MW 1323 was used on this contract by Arrol, and on what contract it was used by Mitchell at Woodhouse Mill (station on the Midland Railway "old road" between Rotherham and Chesterfield). Are there any other known owners ? (KPP)

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          "This will bring you in mind of old times" is written on this commercial view (postmarked 1904) of ADDIEWELL No. (5?), a Barclay of the now defunct Young's Paraffin Light & Mineral Oil Co Ltd at Addiewell. Notice the four wheel "tender". And is that a young (!) enthusiast at the lineside ?   (collection K. P. Plant)